Sharing broadband connection

Grumpysally

We want to upgrade to broadband and share between 3 machines, one desktop and two laptops. I'm rather confused about the best way to do this.
Is it possible to share the conection from the modem as we don't want to network the computers themselves?
Also we live in a tall terrace house and my other half is concerned that wireless might not travel from the basement to the attic. We would prefer not to have a wired connection as there are enough wires trailing round the house.
Would the modem provided by the ISP be suitable for networking or would we have to purchase a special one or some kind of addaptor.
Finally what size package should we go for? DS downloads music and plays games, DD general browsing but probably getting into downloading music soon, and we do general browsing but want extra speed for uploading photos, and don't want to be slowed down to a crawl while the other two are doing their stuff.
I've estimated that on top of the set up cost from the ISP we'll have to spend around £70 to buy all the filters, routers and the 'thingies' that send the 'stuff' to the computers wirelessly. ( technical terms you know )
Thanks, hope it makes sense.
Alison

mrJ_5

you will need a 4 port modem router - you can get one of these from ebuyer for about £30, filters cost about £2-3 there also - I am not aware of a provider that will give these out for free, as they are significantly more expensive than the bog standard usb ones.

I use 512k between 5 machines at home, and everything is ok, for general stuff - one machine is on P2P and everyone else can surf fine. so i suggest 512k, you can always upgrade to 1mb if needed - but go for 1mb if you want it

i use zazizam (https://www.zazizam.com) unlimited 512k - and recommend that - its £15.99 with phone option (which I use) £17.99 without. 1mb is £19.99 with phone option, £21.99 without. the prices are pretty good, considering there aren't that many unlimited broadband connections out there anymore, most providers have gone capped - but with an unlimited connection, you do not have to worry about how much you are downloading, espeacially over 3 machines

gavinp

Are you going for ADSL or broadband from one of the cable companies ?

For "difficult" spots, you might like to consider also using Homeplug which allows you to network PCs over the mains power wiring in your house:

http://www.solwise.co.uk/net-powerline.htm

http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/products/index.html?&product_uid=72306

I've found you can always get a well-performing network using a mixture of the two when wireless on it's own doesn't do the job.

Thanks

Gavin

Grumpysally

gavinp wrote:

Are you going for ADSL or broadband from one of the cable companies ?


ADSL, we can't get cable round here.

Tomthumb

http://www.pcworld.co.uk/martprd/store/pcw_page.jsp?BV_SessionID=@@@@1480102535.1127324296@@@@&BV_EngineID=ccekaddfkgekjjmcflgceggdhhmdgml.0&page=Product&sku=123014&category_oid=-24992&fm=undefined&sm=undefined&tm=undefined

I bought a DLink package (link above) from PCWorld online - but picked it up instore (saved £25) It was easy to install even with AOL !! I was totally confused by it all but it's not as bad as it seems :T

At the moment I have my PC connected directly to the router and I share the wireless USB thing (??) between two laptops as I don't need them at the same time although I presume I would just buy another USB thing if I did.

Hope that helps a bit - I'm sure the others will be a bit more technical!!

Jen x